The Jharkhand high court on Monday declined to grant bail to senior Congress legislator and murder convict Sawna Lakra (71).

The Jharkhand high court on Monday declined to grant bail to senior Congress legislator and murder convict Sawna Lakra (71).

The Ranchi district court on May 15, 2013, had awarded life imprisonment to Khijri legislator Lakra and three others for murdering Avinash Tiwari (21) of Garhwa district.

Lakra has been languishing here at the Birsa Munda Central Jail. Aggrieved by the lower court’s verdict, Lakra has approached the HC challenging the order of conviction and also sought bail.

A division bench headed by justice DN Patel rejected Sawna’s plea observing that the evidences prima facie indicate his complicity in the crime.

Sawna, in his bail plea, urged the court that he was suffering from various health ailments and needed advanced treatment. He contended that he was convicted only on the basis of circumstantial evidences and there were no eye witnesses of the crime.

The Ranchi police, who had investigated the matter, in the chargesheet revealed that Avinash of Garhwa district had an affair with MLA’s married daughter Usha Lakra, who was not on good terms with her husband Karam Chandra Toppo.

As per mobile phone call details between Avinash and Usha, the duo used to talk on phone for several hours at a stretch.

Avinash went missing on April 24, 2012. His body was found three days later in a drain at Karra. The victim’s father, Sanjay Tiwari, alleged that Lakra abducted and tortured his son. According to the chargesheet, following the legislator’s order, his driver Gopi Kachhap had fired on Avinash with a pistol that led to his death at Lakra’s farm house at Bargawaon in Ranchi.

After the murder, the body was packed in a gunny bag and transported to a lonely place in the legislator’s official four-wheeler.